As a history book the Bible is unique, telling us about the future as well as the past. To become obsessed with either is to evade life's challenges. Both perspectives are needed to live 'over the circumstances' of the present.

The book of Revelation focuses on the future and can produce two kinds of Christians — those who keep away from it and those who can't keep away from it! Both need a more balanced view of its significance. After all, it is the only book in the whole Bible to which God has attached a special blessing and an awful curse. It was written for ordinary people under extraordinary pressure. Suffering is the key to its understanding. It is a manual for martyrdom.

As history draws to a close, all Christians need its message of warning and encouragement.

This is the first in a major new series in which David Pawson invites the reader to Come with me through . . . a book of the Bible.